Speed Boost
We tested a reference system provided by AMD that ran Windows XP pro. It came configured with 1GB of 400-MHz DDR memory; a 10,000 rpm, 74GB hard disk; and an Nvidia Geforce 6800 ultragraphics card with 256 MB of DDR3 RAM. (The Intel system we previously tested came with comparable hardware.
The AMD machine was the second-fastest we’ve ever tested, with a 116 mark on world Bench 5, easily surpassing the 95 posted by the 3.2-GHz dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition 840 reference system that we looked at earlier.
The unit showed it prowess on the multitasking portion of worldbench 5. Its time of 6 minutes, 44 seconds was an impressive 3 minutes, 42 seconds faster than the average o two Athlon 64FX-55 systems, and about 3 minutes faster than the dual-core Pentium EE 840 reference PC’s time.
If you want one of these powerful beasts, you’ll have to pay dearly for it: AMD’s 4800+ chips alone are priced at $ 1001 each in quantities of 1000, while Intel’s 3.2-GHz Pentium EE 840 chips currently sell for $995. Entry-level Athlon X2 chips will cost only about half that much, however, so you can still get the benefits of 64-bit technology nd dual-core processing without breaking the bank.
Intel devotees should also observed dual-core Pentium D- based systems arriving about the time you read this, and such PCs should be considerably less expensive than those with the Pentium EE 840.